Friday, February 7, 2025

NBP Top 10 Best Films Of 2024 – Tom O’Brien

It’s been one of those years, a chaotic 12 months where we have seen significant changes in politics, culture, and even moviegoing habits. 2024 was the first year in some time that the summer movie season was not kicked off with a Marvel extravaganza, and the result was a disappointing start box-office-wise. But thanks to a couple of rival superheroes and a pair of witches, moviegoers came rushing back to the theaters and restored a sense of normalcy once again at the box office.

Of course, there are still those grumbling few who argue that 2024 was a lousy year for movies. Well, I beg to differ. At this writing, we currently have the most up-in-the-air Best Picture race we’ve had in some time. And just look at the quality of the films! There were so many deserving films this year to choose from as I assembled my list of the year’s best that I have to take a moment to mention my 10 excellent runners-up (in alphabetical order): “The Count of Monte Cristo,” “Daughters,” “Dìdi,” Ghostlight,” “Green Border,” “I’m Still Here,” “Late Night With the Devil,” “The Remarkable Life of Ibelin,” “Sing Sing,” and “The Wild Robot.

With that, on to my top 10 films of 2024:

10. September 5

Before coming to Next Best Picture, I spent many years working in television, with many hours spent sitting in a studio control room covering a show as it was going live on the air. I’ve seen many films with control room scenes, but rarely have I seen one that captures both the fear and the thrill of going live as “September 5.” But that’s not what makes Tim Fehlbaum’s film so outstanding. Nor is it really the film’s subject matter – the terrorist murder of 11 Israeli coaches and athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics – a horrendous event that had been captured in great detail in previous films, such as “One Day in September” & Spielberg’s “Munich.” At its heart, “September 5” is really about journalism and the importance of getting the truth out to the world at large. What makes the film’s take on the subject so unusual is that its leading characters aren’t journalists — they’re sports producers, chyron operators, or even translators. Most of them are ordinary people who are suddenly given the responsibility of covering a life-and-death story as it is happening and doing their level best not to make a deadly mistake. And sometimes it happens. One of the film’s most memorable moments is the look of horror on the face of producer Geoff Mason (an excellent John Magaro), who realizes that the live feed they’re sending out showing the Israeli forces about to strike the terrorists is being watched by the terrorists themselves. That one moment of humanity is a succinct summation of why Fehlbaum’s film works so well: he makes the unthinkable conceivable by making it personal.

9. Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World

Romanian provocateur Radu Jude is up to his old tricks again, and in the case of “Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World,” he’s better than ever. Arguably cinema’s leading bomb thrower, Jude always seems to find a way to utilize black comedy to make his points go down easier, and throughout his career, there’s been no shortage of targets, from corporate greed to crass commercialism, to escape his satiric wrath. His wicked critiques are the source of his filmmaking strengths, but his sheer number of targets can often be seen as a liability. He has so many points to make that his films, at times, feel scattershot, lacking a cohesive center. In “Do Not Expect,” however, he has found one glorious center in actor Ilinca Manolache, who stars as Angela, a tough but harried production assistant who barrels all over Bucharest, fulfilling any number of tasks — from auditioning workers who are maimed in work-related accidents to creating her own Tik Tok character of Bonita, a skeevy male misogynist. Jude’s societal targets here are inviting and well deserving of skewering, from racism to corporate greed to disinformation on social media. But they’re all skillfully channeled through Angela, which, because we care about her, makes us care about them. At long last, Jude is firing on all cylinders here, creating a wildly imaginative smorgasbord of prickly delights, where no sacred cow is left ungored, nor is any pious platitude left unmocked. “Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World” is simply too much…in the very best possible way.

8. Hundreds of Beavers

It’s been months since I first saw Mike Cheslik’s remarkable “Hundreds of Beavers,” and I still marvel at its very existence. The demented brainchild of Cheslik and star Ryland Brickson Cole Tews, this black-and-white, nearly dialogue-free slapstick comedy clearly has many influences, particularly silent film comedies and the physical comedy of such brilliant clowns as Buster Keaton. But it’s the world of Looney Tunes that is clearly evident throughout with its own illogical logic, as cartoon birds constantly reappear to peck at our hero’s head and mysterious holes in the ground suddenly appear to swallow him up. What’s most amazing about the film, I think, is the sheer audacity to think that a story of a 19th-century applejack salesman (Tews) seeking revenge on the hundreds of beavers who ruined his business could work. By using those great silent film comedies as inspiration, Cheslik managed to create a work that looks like it could have been shot in the 1920s, but it brings a fresh contemporary sensibility to the material, which makes it seem new. Still, audacity can take you just so far if you don’t have the resources to realize your vision. But Cheslik, who also edited and provided the film’s remarkable visual effects — all on a budget of only $150,000 — built this cartoon-like world and actually makes us believe that it’s real. Finally, there’s the test of any screen comedy: is it funny? I have to say that I would need to go back several decades to the heyday of “Airplane!” to find a film that delivered more solid laughs per minute. And for a comedy, there’s no higher praise.

​7. No Other Land

What would you do if you saw your home being bulldozed into oblivion by troops from another country? That was the dilemma faced by Palestinian activist filmmaker Basel Adra, who, for the past five years, has been filming the efforts by Israeli forces to wipe his mountain community of Masafer Yatta off the map. Even with this week’s cease-fire and the safe return of hostages in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, the fact remains that more than 46,000 Palestinians have been killed in the conflict with Israel. And considerably more families, such as Basel’s, have been displaced in Gaza. Early in this harrowing documentary, Basel seems to be alone in his quest to bring the plight of his people to the world’s attention, but he soon gets back up from a seemingly unlikely source: independent Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham, who has witnessed the apartheid conditions in the West Bank and partners up with Basel in his quest to brings the Palestinians’ plight to the world’s attention. Basel’s neighbors eye the Israeli newcomer warily since he is able to cross the border back into Israel to live a life of relative comfort, whereas many of Basel’s neighbors must live in caves after their homes were destroyed. Yuval, however, sees his partnership with Basel as the most effective way to show that people on both sides of the conflict are outraged at the destruction and genocide of the war, and they have the receipts to prove it. Joined by fellow co-directors Hamdan Ballal & Rachel Szor, what Basel and Yuval have created in this film is a vital and heartbreaking snapshot in time, with their on-the-scene footage bringing alive the horrors of displacement and genocide in a way that just an objective newspaper article never could. Yet seeing these two activists from opposite sides of the conflict working together does deliver a glimmer of hope, however slight, that a permanent peace can be achieved. That may be this film’s greatest contribution of all.

6. Conclave

Think of the new thriller “Conclave” as a stew. No one would mistake it for haute cuisine, but if you make that stew out of the finest quality ingredients, it will taste pretty delicious.  That’s “Conclave. Directed by Edward Berger, who last helmed the Oscar-winning war drama “All Quiet on the Western Front,” this twisty thriller is also about a war, but of a very different kind, one in which the weapons of choice are not rifles but whispered innuendoes. A stellar cast, led by Ralph Fiennes in a career-best performance, quickly establishes the story’s richly detailed collection of characters as they jostle and cajole their fellow cardinals in an effort to replace the newly-deceased Pope at a conclave run by Fiennes’ Cardinal Thomas Lawrence. The tech contributions — the stock of the stew, if you will — are tops across the board. The elegant cinematography by Stéphane Fontaine, the crisp editing of Nick Emerson, the dynamic score by Volker Bertelmann, and Suzie Davies’ production design — the Sistine Chapel! those marble mausoleum-like apartments! — all contribute to the film’s flavor, as do the spicy performances of Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow, Isabella Rossellini, Lucian Msamati, Carlos Diehz, and a vaping Sergio Castellitto. Holding it all together is Berger’s propulsive direction and, particularly, the screenplay by Peter Straughan, adapted from the 2016 Robert Harris page-turner of a novel. If the film were merely a crowd-pleasing puzzle, it would be entertaining enough, but the way that Straughan interweaves the themes of doubt and faith kicks his acclaimed script up to another level. In the words of Cardinal Lawrence, “If there was only certainty and doubt, there would be no mystery,” Indeed.

5. Close Your Eyes

Incredibly, “Close Your Eyes” is only the fourth feature film in the 50-year career of legendary Spanish director Victor Erice, who burst onto the film scene in 1973 with his debut feature “The Spirit of the Beehive,” still considered to be one of the best Spanish films ever made. Structured as an investigative procedural, the film centers on aging filmmaker Miguel Garay (Manolo Solo), who never completed his final film, 1990’s “The Farewell Kiss,” after its star Julio Arenas (José Coronado) disappeared during production, never again to be found. Garay quit the business shortly thereafter, but in 2012, he was contacted by a “Dateline”-like reality TV show, which speculated that Julio might actually still be alive. That nagging question sparks Miguel to start an investigation of his own, delving into what happened on the set thanks to production archivist Max (Mario Pardo) and Julio’s friends and family, including his resentful daughter (“Spirit of the Beehive” star Ana Torrent, a nice touch). But the film’s final act truly soars with an unexpected revelation that broadens the film’s scope. The film’s heartbreaking final sequence inside a movie theater brings together all of Erice’s themes — including Miguel’s and (Erice’s) tactile love of film — culminating in an unforgettable final shot that brings new meaning to the film’s title. If, in 1973, Erice’s “The Spirit of the Beehive” revealed a director with his whole career ahead of him, “Close Your Eyes” captures one looking back with the wisdom of acknowledging the drama in his life and the skills to turn it into art.

4. The Brutalist

From its opening moments, as a title card announces an overture and the first strains of Daniel Blumberg’s majestic score begin to be heard, we realize that we are in store for something different with Brady Corbet’s “The Brutalist.” As forward-looking as the film turns out to be, its style evokes another filmgoing era entirely, with that overture and a 15-minute intermission that hearkens back to the glory days of grandiose roadshow films. Like those films, “The Brutalist” feels like an epic, but unlike most of them, the epic quality refers to the scope of its ideas and the scale in which Corbet chooses to tell his story. Our guide to Corbet’s vision of the American dream is architect László Tóth (Adrien Brody), who, after surviving the Holocaust, emigrated to the U.S. in 1947 to realize his dream of becoming a successful American architect. His distinctive work soon catches the eye of wealthy industrialist Harrison Lee Van Buren (Guy Pearce), who commissions him to design a tribute to his late mother — an ambitious community center that would strike all who see it with awe. In return for his efforts, Van Buren agrees to expedite the immigration of László’s niece and his wife, Erzsébet (Felicity Jones). The film’s first half is near perfection, a sprawling, dazzling tale of reaching for the American Dream and, against all odds, achieving it. However, the film’s second half is denser and chewier, as László begins to see that dream begin to be sliced, diced, and co-opted by those using it for their own ends. The film’s back half presents an unsettling vision of America, one that some audiences may find difficult to accept, but one that elevates “The Brutalist” from a well-made entertainment to a work of art.

​3. All We Imagine as Light

Writer/director Payal Kapadia’s luminescent “All We Imagine As Light” examines in fine detail working life in the rainy city of Mumbai by focusing on two nurses who work at a nearby hospital. Prabba (Kani Kusruti) is a quiet, hardworking nurse whose husband works in Europe, while her younger roommate Anu (Divya Prabha) is carrying on a clandestine affair with a Muslim boy, Shiaz (Hridu Haroon). Friction arises early between the two — not surprising given their different temperaments — but remarkably, the two women bond in their dedication to helping their patients. Prabba’s charity also extends to her friends, particularly hospital cook Parvaty (Chhaya Kadam), a widow who was forced out of her home by developers. At the same time, Prabba, worried about her rapidly disintegrating marriage to her overseas husband, clings to a rice cooker from an unknown source, hoping it’s from her husband, all the while rebuffing a possible courtship from a doctor colleague (Azeez Nedumangad), simply because she is married, even if in name only. Kapadia takes a big narrative chance in the film’s third act by moving the action out of Mumbai to the seaside village where Pavarty grew up, but it’s a risk that pays off handsomely. Prabba and Anu travel by train with Pavarty to support their friend, and in the quiet solitude of the beach, the three women come to realize that their bond of sisterhood is enough to get them through any crisis. A simple plot synopsis doesn’t do the magic of this film justice, and calling it a “mood piece”sells the remarkable atmosphere of the film short. Still, as the sight of LED lights punctuates the sky, “All We Imagine As Light” brilliantly captures a world of serenity whose extraordinary imagery has stayed with me for months.

2. Anora

More than any other American filmmaker, Sean Baker has always had a watchful eye and a full heart for those who are dispossessed and living on the fringes of society. Whether they be lap dancers, male porn stars, or trans sex workers, Baker has embraced their work ethic and financial struggle in a society that looks down on sex-related work. That is true of Ani (a fearless Mikey Madison), who ekes out a living at a Brooklyn men’s club and strikes it rich with her latest john — Vanya (Mark Eydelshteyn), the stoner son of a Russian oligarch, who hires Ani for a madcap week that culminates in an impromptu Vegas wedding. But Baker is too wise a filmmaker to settle for a conventional happy ending, so when the super-rich oligarch family and its goons swoop in to try to make this marriage disappear, they have another thing coming when they face the jilted bride. The disparity between rich and poor has always been a subtle theme layered throughout Baker’s films, but it has never been so clearly lit as it is here. Yet “Anora” never feels like a polemic on the class struggle because Baker has wrapped it in the most digestible way possible, part Cinderella story, part screwball comedy, but always real. And “Anora” never gets more real than in the film’s final scene when Ani finally comes face to face with the henchman Igor (a terrific Yura Borisov), who has loved her from afar. I know some people hate the last shot, but it’s that moment, I believe, that makes “Anora” great and a film that we’ll still be discussing years from now.

1. The Seed of the Sacred Fig

The fact that “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” exists at all is a small miracle. The fact that it is so compelling is remarkable. Shot in secret by the great Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof, the searing drama views the oppression being conducted by Iran’s religious patriarchy through the eyes of a well-to-do family whose patriarch, Iman (Misagh Zare), has been promoted to the unenviable job of rubber-stamping death warrants for dissidents. To protect his family, he has kept details of his job from his daughters Rezvan (Mahsa Rostami) and Sana (Setareh Maleki), and although his submissive wife, Najmeh (Soheila Golestani), knows, she says nothing, fearing that any dissent would cost the family dearly. But when a gun that was given to Iman for his protection goes missing, the panicked patriarch turns on his family, sending his wife and daughters to undergo interrogation, where Najmeh gets a taste of what the dissidents, whom she had been dismissing, have been suffering at her husband’s hand. All this may sound like dry allegory, but Rasoulof clearly knows how to make a movie, and “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” plays like gangbusters through its final harrowing act. That Iman is driven so far as to lock up his loved ones not only works as a critique of Iran’s patriarchy, it also works as gripping cinema. That Rasoulof punctuates his allegory with actual footage from women in the streets at the Women, Life, Freedom protests is a potent reminder to all that their struggle is ongoing.

What do you think of my list? Please let us know in the comments section below or on our X account. Check out Matt Neglia’s top 10 list here, Josh Parham’s top 10 list here, Dan Bayer’s top 10 list here, Cody Dericks’s top 10 list here and Ryan C. Showers’s top 10 list here. Be on the lookout for more of our Top 10’s for 2024 as we say goodbye to the year. Our annual NBP Film Awards will come in a few days. You can now vote for the NBP Film Community Awards here, be sure to participate and vote on what you thought was the best 2024 had to offer.

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Tom O'Brien
Tom O'Brienhttps://nextbestpicture.com
Palm Springs Blogger and Awards lover. Editor at Exact Change & contributing writer for Gold Derby.

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